Chargers: ‘Best job out there'

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It was no surprise that the San Diego Chargers fired Norv Turner and A.J. Smith on Monday, moves that had been rumored for months and reported for weeks. What remains a mystery is whom the Chargers will hire to replace them.

Team president Dean Spanos already has made one decision, retaining highly respected former Green Bay general manager Ron Wolf as a consultant. The game plan, according to the Chargers, is to hire a general manager and then a coach. The Chargers already have sought permission from playoff teams to speak to candidates employed by those clubs. Jimmy Raye, the Chargers' director of player personnel, will be interviewed for the GM job.

Regardless of the identity of the next coach, the Chargers are sure to have plenty of interested candidates. Seven jobs came open Monday, but a league executive said San Diego's is the most attractive.

“I think that is the best job out there,” the executive said. “I thought it was the one job (Jon) Gruden would come back for.”

Gruden, currently the “Monday Night Football” analyst for ESPN, has been linked to just about every opening in the NFL and college football since Tampa Bay fired him three years ago. A message left with his agent was not returned.

While Gruden is considered a long shot – he reportedly has turned down several offers and is under contract with ESPN through 2016 – Bruce Arians might not be. After guiding Indianapolis to a 9-3 record as the Colts' interim coach this season, Arians, 60, has become a sought-after candidate.

Arians filled in for Pagano, who underwent treatment for leukemia. The Chargers have a Pagano connection: Chuck's younger brother John is their defensive coordinator. Whether John Pagano and other assistants are retained under the new regime remains to be seen.

Kelly's offense would not suit the skill set of quarterback Philip Rivers, perhaps the main asset that makes the Chargers job so appealing.

Although he has struggled at times over the past two seasons, Rivers remains a franchise-caliber quarterback. Rivers is in his prime – he turned 31 on Dec. 8 – and has proved he can produce if given adequate protection. Rivers threw eight touchdown passes and zero interceptions in the Chargers' final four games, winning three of them.

That closing surge ended up being too little, too late for Smith and Turner, a combination that produced three division titles and an AFC Championship Game appearance in six seasons. Only five teams won more games than the Chargers during Smith's 10 seasons as GM.

But three consecutive seasons without a playoff berth and declining attendance sealed the pair's fate.

“Three years of not being in the playoffs, you could see that the arrow was pointed in the wrong direction,” Spanos told reporters. “I think it was more than enough time.”

Smith didn't disagree, telling U-T San Diego: “We are in a bottom-line business. Results are the only things that matter. … Our last three years tells you Dean was right.”

Smith defended Turner, calling him an “outstanding” coach and accepting full responsibility for the Chargers' regression. Their talent level unquestionably fell off this past season, especially along the offensive line and at wide receiver. Smith's decisions to let receiver Vincent Jackson and tailback Darren Sproles leave via free agency proved costly. Smith also saddled the next general manager with some bad contracts, including those given to injury-prone tackle Jared Gaither and unproductive receiver Robert Meachem.

As is the case with most decision-makers, Smith's drafts were hit or miss, with the latter outweighing the former in recent years. Smith did do a good job of rebuilding the front seven on defense.

Even before these past three seasons, in which the Chargers went 24-24, there was a sense that they underachieved. Turner took over a team that went 14-2 in 2006. The Chargers reached the AFC Championship Game the following season but won only one playoff game thereafter. In 2009, the Chargers had the second-best record in the AFC (13-3) but lost at home to then-rookie Mark Sanchez and the Jets in the divisional round.

Turner said Monday that he didn't think the Chargers would be a playoff team in 2013.

“We've had too many changes,” he told reporters. “We've lost too many people.”

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